Unofficial Guide touring plans....ever used them??

[AKASnowWhite]

I've been looking at the touring plans in the Unofficial Guide to DL. We've never used them before on any of our WDW trips, and we've managed just fine (however our stays are always 9 or 10 days during *value* season)....

I think I'm a bit concerned about the crowd potential for our DL trip - and I want to make the most of our time.....Has anyone out there ever used these touring plans successfully???

 

[AKASnowWhite]

hasn't ANYONE used them?!?!?

 

[Charlieanna]

Hi,
Since I've been to DL many times, I don't even look at the books anymore, however in the beginning before we were "experts," and for the one trip we made to WDW, I scoured these kind of books for tips and tricks, etc., but have never used them word for word, or from the particular book you mentioned (Unofficial Guide to DL). They are however, great starting points, and if you wanted an easy way to go without doing a lot of research on your own, I see no reason not to use one. I would however rate your priorities of everything in the lists because you may have to axe things here or there due to time constraints or closures. Birnbaum also has an excellent DL book (I like this one the best); I'm not sure if Fodor's does, but their travel books are great too.

I do think you are on the right path reading these posts and doing your homework prior to going though. Sometimes what others have to say about their experiences makes more sense. I would personally suggest studying the park maps and familiarizing yourself with what is where (go to the Disney website or get from the books). The biggest suggestion I would make in whatever route you choose, is to do everything and see everything you want to see in one area/land before moving on to the next. All the good intentions in the world of, "oh we'll come back and do that later" never seem to happen!

 

[Krisj]

I used them as a spine sorta speak for our plans when we went to WDW last year in Sept. We probably would have been fine without cause we did EE and Enights then too. I think they are a good general guide. We have little kids and older ones so I couldn't just do the Dumbo in a day plan or the Adult plans. I did print out our rides in order of how we were going to do them and put our priority seating down too. We stuck to the cards about 95% of the time. But the lines were so short last year we rode on things over and over again.
So I guess my answer is y es and no. We are going in Dec to DL and I am planning on doing my schedule here soon. I will be using the unofficial plans again as a basis for my plans.